Friedrich von Hayek: The Road to Serfdom

It seems every day there are more calls for government intervention to relieve us from the infliction and anguish caused by our current economic woes. Those who call for more government centralization and planning reason that doing so can dispel hardship and decline. Yet rarely do they consider that central planning doesnâ€™t work precisely because it counters the variable paramount to guide societal and economic complexities: freedom.

In his indispensable 1944 classic, The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich von Hayek imparts his sage insight:

Economic control is not merely control of a sector of human life which can be separated from the rest; it is the control of the means for all our ends. And whoever has sole control of the means must also determine which ends are to be served, which values are to be rates higher and which lower, in short, what men should believe and strive for.

Sometimes it is argued that our modern economy is too complex to go without central planning, so sacrificing personal freedom is justified for the greater good. Hayek dispels this notion: